Under Ceasefire
by StoneSentinel
Summary: A stout young Hufflepuff braves the hopeless ruins of Hogwarts Castle, during the final battle with Voldemort, to collect the wounded. All seems wrecked, until he finds her, crumpled under the rubble. The one who never laughed at him, or cut him down. He had always felt he owed her, now he gets the chance to settle the debt. (Based on Thanfield's DAYD fanfic. Leave reviews please!)
1. Chapter 1

The dusty air split with a whip-like crack. Where there had been no one, there now stood a figure. His bone white uniform shirt had been turned a shade of deep grey in the far-too-early morning light. Sweat, and dirt stained it as well, and blossoms of crimson clashed with the golden yellow stripes of his loosed neck-tie.

 _This is where she fell._ He thought. A glance over the rubble gave no comfort.

The remains of Ravenclaw tower dwarfed him. Half of the circular tower had miraculously remained intact during its fall. Reaching up from the ground and curving over him as though it were the ribcage of some enormous, long-decayed animal. Moonlight shone through the wrecked windows, illuminating what once was the common room. Arm chairs were strewn across what had become a floor of stony rubble, joined by the shattered wood of the room's communal tables, and bedecked with the torn and bedraggled remains of multiple blue and bronze banners. He wandered through the graveyard-esque ruins.

 _It's no good._ He thought to himself. _She fell from the rooftop._

Traversing the wreckage, he came to what had been the roof of the common room. He vaulted through a hole in what should have been solid brick, and came to one of the first year's dormitories. He couldn't tell if it was the boy's or girl's dorm, for the sight that met him, mimicked the scene he had left. Everything was shattered. Pausing for only a brief moment, he shook off the nagging thought.

 _What if she had been shattered the same way?_

The question still loomed at the back of his mind as he dropped heavily into the spiral staircase that led on. There had been no hole to the second year's dorms.

" _Lumos._ " The tip of his wand ignited, lighting the tomb-like passage an eerie blue. Walking as fast as he could, he came to the curve of the sideways staircase. Tossing his bookbag to the next level, and clenching his wand in his teeth, he pulled himself up and over.

By his third time doing this, he ached from the exertion. He was no pixie after all.

Struggling to the next level for the fourth time, he found this section to be dimly lit with natural light. " _Nox_." He mumbled.

A hole had been knocked in the "ceiling" of the staircase, and led out to a fourth year dorm. His heart almost forgot how to beat as he caught a glimpse of scarlet under the pile of rubble. _Her robes._

Fumbling, he extricated a shimmering galleon from under his shirt where he wore it on a chain. Smacking it with his wand, he whispered excitedly.

" _Homogenous Lumos..._ " The galleon began to shine brilliantly, even through his shirt as he stuffed it away, rushing forward to where her galleon had shone through cloth as well.

Only half of her had been buried, and her other half came into view as he moved around the pile of rubble. He half expected to find that she'd been mercilessly crushed to jelly by falling stone, but she hadn't… and, _by_ _Merlin_ , she was still breathing! Forgetting all magic, he began hurriedly flinging stones away down the passage. Trollish as he was, it wasn't long before he had unburied her legs. They didn't look badly crushed, but he knew they would be at the very least, horrendously bruised. He held two fingers to her throat, feeling warm relief overtake his heart as he found her steady pulse. He slipped a hand under her head, careful not to shift her body incase her spine had been broken.

Bringing his wand up, he mumbled, " _Enervate_." Her eyelids fluttered. Slowly, she blinked awake and looked at him. He dropped his head in a sigh of relief. He brought his eyes up to meet hers, and the deep brown eyes of Cho Chang stared back at him. Taking a moment to process, she spoke, voice feeble and scratchy.

"Sorry… but, who'r you?"


	2. Chapter 2

She made to sit up, protesting mildly when he placed a hand on her shoulder to keep her down.

"I'll tell you," he replied tenderly, "if you promise to stay layin' for a while."

"No arguments here…" She grunted, clearly pained.

"Name's Whitaker." The young Scotsman smiled kindly. "Can you feel your toes?"

She blinked dumbly. "Wha- Why?"

"I need to know if your spine's broken. Can you wiggle your toes? Any tingles?" He asked matter-of-factly.

"Well-" She faltered again. Clearly thrown by his tactlessness. "No tingles…" She whimpered, face screwed up in pain. "I think my right leg is broken though."

"Not surprising. They were buried in rubble when I found you."

"Good to know…" She muttered.

Moments passed as he drew up to assess their situation. His mind blazed through possibilities before coming to rest on a plan. _Out the dorm would be easier. Simple levitation charm. Splint her. Get her to the Hall._

He chuckled softly. "S'pose I should apologize for my bedside manner in advance. I'm a better fighter than medic." She smiled bemusedly at his comment.

Kneeling again, he slid his hand under her shoulder to help her sit up. "Easy...Careful." He offered lamely.

"Real help you are." She grumbled sarcastically, sitting herself up.

"You just woke up from a couple hundred foot fall. You wouldn't want to hurt yourself just sitting up would you?" He smirked amusedly. "Just my luck it'd happen on my watch, too."

"Ha. Ha." Cho said sarcastically. Returning his amused side-smile.

Pausing for a moment, he gazed up at the moon through the hole. Finally acknowledging the obvious, he asked. "How _did_ you manage to survive?"

"Arresto Momentum, I think… I remember everything up until I hit the ground. I was still falling fairly fast because I had barely anytime to cast it after blasting holes in the walls." She nodded upward. "I don't think the hole was big enough though."

"Hence the leg." He deduced. She nodded.

He let out an impressed, low whistle. "Reductor Curse?" He asked.

"Yeah."

He chuckled appreciatively, putting on his best southern-American accent. "Nice shootin' Tex." The way she smiled seemed to be despite herself.

More moments of silence fell. He was _lost_ in that smile. Now he fully understood why she had earned the reputation of one of the prettiest girls in school, even under the circumstances. Her raven hair was stained a splotchy grey with stone dust, and her face nicked in several places, each cut trickling slightly. Her warm, almond shaped eyes flashed with an amusement defiant of pain as she joked back,

"Well, if you ever need backup…"

"I'll sleep so much better knowing Cho Chang's on my side." He quipped while digging through his bag.

She stopped giggling abruptly. "How do you know my name?" Her tone was oddly anxious, accusatory even.

"What?"

"I never told you my name." He could see she was serious about this.

"Well..." He paused lamely. "We're in the same year."

"I didn't know yours."

"I wasn't as popular as you." He said defensively. Her glare lessened. She seemed to at least accept the plausibility of his explanation.

Less accusatory than before, she mumbled, "I don't know what you mean by popular..."

"Can the modesty." He sighed, half amused, half exasperated. "You were the prettiest girl in our year. Denial is just pretentious."

She balked at this. "Sorry…" She muttered.

Realizing his rudeness, he added, "I don't mean to say you're pretentious… just that it's pointless to deny it."

Her pale face tinted a soft pink in the grim morning light. "Tell that to Harry's little band of harpie fangirls…" She muttered, avoiding his gaze.

"They were idiots." He stated plainly. "Just jealous that Harry had liked you more than them. And they only liked him 'cause he was famous."

"Still… They were never exactly easy on me."

"I know." He answered, remembering the times a tear streaked Cho had pushed past him in the corridors during their 6th year. He remembered the whispers, the _gossip_. He had always hated gossip… He remembered the howlers that would swoop in during Charms, or Transfiguration, and screech at her in a evilly distorted voice, until she would have to leave class in embarrassment, the wretched things following her all the way out. He remembered the way his soul burned, like the forge of a goblin smithy, with all the anger he felt at all the teacher's _pathetic_ inability to stop anything. He remembered just wanting to comfort her. He had never known why. She had never so much as been assigned a seat by him in class… she never even knew his name. But still, the brutish heavyweight's heart had broken at the injustice of it all.

"Don't worry about it. I know how it feels." He added grimly.

"What do you mean?"

Regaining his wits, and returning to his bookbag, he produced a good-sized canteen. Offering it to her, he said, "You'll have to bribe it out of me by taking some water." He grinned broadly as she all but snatched the canteen from him, and began sucking down huge swallows of water, clearly unaware of just how parched her throat had been until now.

"Careful now," he admonished jovially, "You'll drink yourself sick."

She dropped the canteen from her lips, smiling sheepishly at her exuberance. "Sorry… Just _really_ thirsty."

"I'd have never guessed." They both laughed at this. As the laughter faded to chuckles, he was struck by something. "You know," he began, smiling, "you don't have to apologize to me for everything."

Realization flashed in her eyes. "Sor-" she began. But she caught herself. She looked down reservedly. "Force of habit, I s'pose." She mumbled.

"Then it's a habit tha' needs breakin'." He said kindly. She stared up at him for a few moments, then nodded.

"Anyways," he added, sensing a solemn turn in the conversation, "I need to get you out of here. Now, I s'pose the best way out is through the holes you blasted. Any objections to levitation?"


	3. Chapter 3

She looked at him, as if about to say something, but quickly stopped. She shook her head stiffly.

"You sure?"

She nodded again, though clearly holding something back.

"Alright." Producing a wand from a thin leather holster hanging on the back of his belt, he held it up. _Swish and flick._ He reminded himself.

" _Wingardium Leviosa."_

Cho rose steadily into the air. Manipulating his wand, he sent her upwards. He noticed as she reached the edge of the hole, that her face had grown as ashen grey as the dust in her hair. This worried him slightly. He set her down just over the edge of the hole. He stuffed the canteen back into his bookbag before throwing the strap over his head. Replacing his wand in its holster, he jumped to grab the ledge, and hauled himself over it.

This room was much bigger than the narrow staircase they had just left behind. The sideways dorm was also much brighter than the stairs had been thanks to the empty windows over their heads. Everything in here was smashed as well.

Cho was where he had set her down. She still looked grey in the face, but instead of pain, her face was drawn taut with sickness. She looked up at him.

"Sor-" She started, but ended abruptly his eyebrows rose. "Motion sickness."

"How?" He asked confusedly. "You've played the most intense position on the Ravenclaw quidditch team for years." This made no sense to him.

"Tha's different." She said, shaking her head. "Got a broomstick under you to hold on to. Levitating in midair just... drops my heart into my stomach." She paused for a deep breath. "I _hate_ it." She finished.

"Then why didn't you say?"

"You had to to get me out of here." She replied.

"I'd have thought of something else."

She shook her head adamantly. "No. It was the best way."

He smiled bemusedly. Here was the prettiest girl at Hogwarts, a complete prep, talking like a _soldier_. Ignoring her own dislikes, forcing herself to endure, even with a broken leg.

 _The world must be ending._ He thought.

She noticed his smile. "What?" She asked.

"Keep it up, and we'll make a warrior of you yet."

They sat in silence. Cho was recovering herself, while Whitaker gazed through the windows to the stars twinkling faintly in the brightening sky. Even with her extreme dislike of levitating, he knew he'd have to subject her to it again. Twice at least. But for now he was letting her catch her breath. He was examining constellations when she spoke.

"Wh- What did you mean?" She had hesitated, her tone demure and slow. He looked at her, confused. "What did you mean when you said you knew what it was like to be…"

"Oh." He cut her off. "I just meant… that I knew what it was like to be outcast." He finished tersely.

"You said you'd tell me… ya'know, if I-" She winced as his bark-like laugh cut her off.

"I…" he began, "I haven't always been the personable type." He smiled a small smile as he watched her head cock lightly to the side as she listened. "Matter o'fact, I'm a quiet guy nowadays, but I was worse back then. Would hardly say more than two words a week."

"I can believe it." Said Cho, smirking smalley. The smile died as she noticed he wasn't going to return it.

He started up again, unconsciously slipping into a heavier accent as his voice ground down to a rumble. "S'pose I should mention, I was raised mostly in the muggle world. Went to muggle school an' all." He smirked. Learned muggle stuff there. Mum taught me magic an' stuff at home."

"So then, why Hogwarts?" Cho asked confusedly.

"Yer gettin' ahead of me." He said, sarcastically indignant. He paused for a breath and continued. "When I was twelve, still pretty new to magic an' everything, I 'ad a row with a teacher. She got real out o' line. Started insultin' my work instead of critiquin' it. Called it ' _pathetic_ ' an' ' _trash_ '. She didn't seem to wanna stop neither… Just kept goin'. Well, o'course I stormed out, as twelve year olds do." He smiled ruefully at this. "I … I remember feeling somthin' like a dam of warmth burst in my chest. Didn' know what it was at the time, but later that day, come to find out, 'alf the buildin' _burned_ down. When it all came down to it, the teacher 'suggested' it migh' have been arson, pointed me out to the cops, 'cause o' how I stormed out."

"Cops?" Cho asked, confused.

"Muggle Law enforcement."

Cho's face slipped into a noticeably surprised look.

"And blamed you?" She exclaimed.

"Yup." He muttered. "'Course they was right, wasn' they? I burned the building down with magic."

"On accident…" Cho noted, voice serious.

"Still…"

"Was anyone hurt?" She asked.

"Nah. It was after school when the teacher asked me to stay an' talk. 'alf the buildin' was a ghost town."

Cho sat quietly for a moment, perhaps taking in the fact that the man who came to find her was an accused criminal.

"It's not right." She finally determined.

"It doesn' matter." He waved his hand, as if to wave the whole memory away. "They had no proof. I wasn't punished… Legally anyways… After the fire, word started to get 'round that I had been accused. Didn' take long for all the parents to form their own opinions o' me. Didn' help that I was a pathological loner…Th' started talkin' 'bout how there must be somthin' wrong with me, isolatin' myself like I did. Took it as a sign that I really _was_ a littl' fire-startin' devil."

Cho looked as though she had no idea what to do with this information. Whitaker's cheeks flushed a purplish-red, and he stared at his hands. Cho had no idea what to do with herself.

"So, you see…" He said heavily. "Mum thought it best to put in a new school. Decided 'ogwarts would help me learn to control myself."

Cho finally finished processing it, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You didn't have to tell me that." She said softly.

"Its nothin'." Whitaker grunted.

"No, really… I shouldn't have asked." She stared downwards.

He looked at her for a moment before he spoke. Even with stone dust smearing her sweaty face, her features appeared soft. He held her gaze when she brought her eyes up. They were the color of dark chocolate, and as deep as the sky. After a beat, he dropped his own eyes, acting like he hadn't been staring. He was fairly certain his mouth had been slightly open…

"...I don't mind telling you." He explained. "You just seem like a trustworthy person." She smiled slightly at this. Her grip on his shoulder tightened familiarly. "Besides, it's only fair. All those times in class... when _you_ were humiliated... s'posed it was fair for you to know that about me."

"Thank you, then." She said.

They sat in the pale light of the twilight sky that was streaming in from the hole in the top-most wall of the dormitory. They sat with each other, the silence, and solemnity of the moment bonding them.

He had just reached up to hold the hand that was on his shoulder, when his galleon blazed to light.


	4. Chapter 4

"Thirty Minutes." He rocketed to his feet, reading the galleon. It was plenty of time, but they needed to move.

"Thirty Minutes 'till what?" Cho asked, confused. He stared at her for a moment, remembering that she had been unconscious for half of the battle.

"'Till th' end of the ceasefire." He stated. Cho looked even more confused.

"How did it end up in a ceasefire? We didn't… " Her eyes widened as the most awful possibility occurred to her, "...surrender?"

"No, thank Merlin, we didn't." He said, a strained gratefulness in his voice. His brow reformed its familiar furrows. "We haven't won though either…" He glared at the ground.

"Then… what?" Cho was beyond confused now. Anxiety rising, she stood heavily. He began raising his hand to help her, but decided against it. He watched as she picked herself up, and met her gaze. A moment of silence passed as warm, chocolate browns silently conversed with cold, marbled blues. Had she not been so concerned with the matter at hand, she would have noticed the hardness fading from his eyes as they met hers.

"No-nose called it." He finally said, breaking the silence and gesturing wildly to the side. "Half-an-hour ago," he flashed the galleon, "he called a ceasefire... To toy with us, I imagine."

Moments passed, and Cho smiled despite the solemnity. "No-nose…?"

"Well... it's an apt description innit?" He smiled as well.

"I suppose." The amusement in her eyes melted back into apprehension, as if she didn't want to know the answer to the question she was about to ask. "So, what did I miss?"

His face dropped, and the soldier she had seen when she first woke up replied, battle-wear creeping into his voice. "Our numbers are down. Less than fifty percent remain combat effective. Most that are still up are, at the moment, searching for wounded, and Voldemort's forces have withdrawn to the forest. We hit them hard… but we couldn't hit them hard enough."

Fighting the urge to flich at the mention of Voldemort's name, she stared."Anyone we know dead?" She asked quietly, knowing the answer.

He snorted darkly. "There's a lot of people we know who're dead." He replied bluntly, staring at the ground.

Cho's voice began to break. "Who?"

As he looked at her, tears welled in the corners of her eyes, he felt compassion explode in his soul. The faint quivering of her lower lip made him wish she hadn't brought in up. "You don't wann-" He started softly.

"No." Cho said. Whitaker blanched slightly. Despite the warning signs of oncoming tears, there was a firmness in her voice. An unusual kind of force. "Tell me." The added words wavered in firmness, but the look she gave him invited no questions of her determination.

The sigh he heaved was heavy and drawn out, as if weighed down with a great iron chain. Anguish welled in his chest, and his voice began to flicker with it.

"Boot. Vane. Creevey… to name a few." He stared at the ground.


	5. Chapter 5

Bedecked with diamond pinpoints, a great swathe of black silk stretched forever on. The sky was clear, and the biting night air stung their dust filled nostrils as they emerged.

Physical relief flooded Cho's face as she made full contact with the stone under her. This bout of levitation had been worse than the first. He had sent her higher than he had the first time, out to the topside of the toppled tower. Mustering the wherewithal, she brought Whitaker up the same way.They rested again. Cho was splayed out on her back, gingerly massaging both her head and leg in turn. Whitaker made no effort to push her as she was already pushing herself more than he ever would.

He scanned the grounds, watching tiny fires dance across the hellscape below. The grounds of Hogwarts, once a great bastion, held no joy now. The flats and hills of the rolling field were now pockmarked with impact craters; over which triage runners scrambled, levitating stretchers into the main entrance of the castle. Defensive structures lay smashed to pieces, and hastily gouged infantry trenches were peppered with heaps of dark cloaks tangled with motionless limbs.

A chill set into Whitaker's soul which had nothing to do with the night air; and a threat of tears began to burn at the corner of his eyes. Tearing his gaze away from the horror show below, he noticed Cho studying him. He fumbled for the words to excuse his tears, but the softness in her eyes ground his babbling to a halt.

"Its bad, isn't it?"

"Hellish… Like something from a World War One movie."

Starlight from the open sky painted her already ashen skin paler as she heaved herself into a sitting position. Heartbreak welled in her deep brown eyes as she saw all that he had. Quiet overtook them both.

Minutes passed. She stole a glance at Whitaker. The burning in his eyes had turned to silent tears. Slowly, she reached for carefully his hand. He didn't jump when her hand met his, nor did he resist when she moved his hand in between them. Their hands bridged the gap in the wall they rested on. The world around them was cold with night, but each found the other's touch warm. She gave a reassuring squeeze. He sniffed.

"Where were you in all of that?" She asked, gesturing to the scene in front of them with a nod.

With his free hand he pointed to a long gouge in the earth which ran diagonal to the right of the main drive leading up from the gates. The right flank of a U shape of trenches.

"Front lines?" She asked compassionately. He nodded. "You all fought bravely, I could see from the tower."

He shrugged. "Your unit's bombardments helped."

"Still, it must've been intense. You all fought them off for almost three hours.

"s'pose so… didn't matter though, did it? Line still broke."

Cho furrowed her eyebrows. "When? I don't remember that.

"Happened jus' after th' tower came down… That's probably why we broke." He added, recalling the panic which arose among his fighters as Ravenclaw Tower was shorn away from the castle.

"Really?" Cho asked.

Whitaker nodded. "We rallied at the main doors, but by that point, we'd been flanked. They were inside the castle." He paused to take a raspy breath. "It was all we could do t' keep 'em out of the entrance hall. 'Specially when the acromantulas barreled into us from the forest-side." Cho's eyes widened despite herself.

Again, minutes passed in silence. Her hand was still in his, warm in spite of the world around her. She gave another reassuring squeeze, and watched him smile slightly at their joined hands. Moments passed as something else flitted into his eyes. Was it… rue? He gave heavy sigh and returned her squeeze. He released her hand, and swung around to face her completely. His somber tone shifting to amused defensivly.

"We need to keep moving."

Cho's eyes hollowed. "More levitation?"

"No," He replied. "We'll jump."

"You know a kinetic dampening charm?"

"Yeah" Was his one-word answer. Standing to hoist his pants legs up over his ankles, he tapped his wand on each foot, whispering "Sustinere." The air around his boots shimmered, seeming to solidify around them. He looked to her and frowned.

"What?" She asked.

"Even with the spell, it'll be a bit of a hard landing. We should splint that leg."

Cho nodded, acting immediately. "Mutatio." Several fallen stones shimmered and melted into twin planks of wood and a roll of strong cloth. Together, they managed a solid splint and got Cho standing.

Inching towards the edge, Whitaker stopped to let Cho sit backwards into his arms. With one hand behind her back and his other under her knees, he hoisted her up gently.

"This is romantic." She remarked sarcastically.

"Oh yes," he replied in kind. "Your perfume of dried sweat and blood sets my heart all aflutter."

She smiled bemusedly, "Tell anyone about this and you're dead."

"Your wish is my command, princess."

He barely had time to register the amused glower she gave him, before he tensed and rocketed into the open air.


End file.
